I’m not going to write about it in depth right now; I’m simply going to point out one rather exciting thing. This paper concerns the reflection nebula NGC 7023, also known as the Iris Nebula. Reflection nebulae are exactly what their name implies. A huge cloud of interstellar gas and dust is visible because it’s actually reflecting starlight (they tend to appear blue because blue light reflects and scatters off nebula material much more than red). The fact that these fullerenes are visible in this nebula means that they are truly interstellar. So within a short space of time, the presence of fullerenes has been confirmed in both interstellar and circumstellar material. I have to wonder what the full implications might be…

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Supernova Condensate is a blog about our place in the Universe. Of astronomy, chemistry and life in the big bad bubble of academia.

Invader Xan is a molecular astrophysicist and part-time alien invader, who spends life looking at very small things on very large scales, and trying to better understand the chemistry of interstellar space.

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"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."-- R Buckminster Fuller